


Child of Fire

by esama



Series: Island of Fire [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Dragons, Gen, POV Third Person Limited, Unplanned Pregnancy, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 05:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3278756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first mother of Atlantis</p>
            </blockquote>





	Child of Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Child of Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11045607) by [johari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/johari/pseuds/johari)



> Proofread by Tsuyuhime, many thanks.

Cho woke up early to the feeling of her stomach churning. She lay still for a moment to see if it would go away, but it didn't, so she pushed herself up, resting a hand on her belly for a moment and wishing it would settle. Of all the things that she'd expected – and really _not_ expected – of a pregnancy, somehow the constant, vague nausea wasn't it. Morning sickness, yes, maybe. Constant throwing up and all that – everyone had spoken of it, so that had been expected. Only she didn't get any of that. Just this odd, in-between state.

_Am I going to throw up today, or not?_

She didn't. Instead she stood up, picking up her wand as she did so. After cleaning her dress with a spell, she quickly snuck past the rest of the girls who were still sleeping and would sleep for another hour or two at least before dawn would wake them. Bare footed, she headed to the entrance, where she very carefully shifted the glass bead curtain aside so as to not make noise.

The sun hadn't yet risen, but the sky was light and there was a line of colour on the horizon. It would be yet again another bright, cloudless day – which, honestly, no one minded. Though they hadn't had a storm since the near beginning, no one was looking forward to another, and even rain was a somewhat worrisome prospect. There was only so much they could do to protect the island, after all, and a lot of rain could do as much damage as high waves on their fields.

But it looked to be a nice day, so she shook her head and stretched out her arms and rubbed her hands along her back. She'd only started showing a little while ago, but she could already feel it on her lower back, the way it weighed down. As she did, the dragons that lay all entangled on the square in front of her shifted, a couple of them peeking sleepy eyes open before settling down. All, but one.

One of the small Greens eased off from the near top of the pile, hopping down with slightly spread wings and landing softly in front of her, or as softly as a creature of three tons could. "Good morning," Bao said, nudging at her affectionately. "You're up early again. Are you feeling okay?"

"Fine, fine. The same as every day," she said with a smile, leaning against him for a moment. "Walk with me for a bit," she then said, and obligingly he matched his much longer stride with hers, his talons clicking and clacking against the smooth stone of the central square as they walked. As always these mornings, she made a beeline for the closest sunflower field, where Bao gently helped her sit up on the flood barrier.

It was one of the smaller fields – the field where Longbottom and the others worked on their more experimental batches of seeds. The sunflowers there were much bigger than normal ones – about three times as big; big enough that should Bao go into the field, the flowers would be taller than he was. Even though they had vegetables and fruit trees and whatnot – they even had _animals_ now – sunflowers still made up a big part of their diet. Unlike all the others, after all, they'd managed to finally automate the growth cycles for the sunflowers, so they had a harvest pretty much every other day, if they wanted it.

Cho breathed in and out slowly. There were so many flowers that their scent completely drowned out the scent of the ocean. It settled her stomach a little.

Bao settled down next to the flood barrier beneath her, yawning as he did – though he didn't go back to sleep, keeping her company instead. "Have you talked to Harry yet?" he asked after a moment. "About the house?"

"I was going to today," she said – a lie. She'd meant to talk about it yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. She _meant_ to, but… she sighed. "It seems sort of selfish, you know," she said. "Especially since Cedric… well."

Bao hummed. "I don't think it's selfish. Considering that the way you people have young is so hard… And I heard some of the others talking. About babies and how difficult they are. Waking up at all hours…"

"Oh, don't remind me," she sighed, resting a hand on her slightly swollen belly. "I am not looking forward to that." Not that she was looking forward to _any of it_ , really. It wasn't as if she'd wanted this. It wasn't that she'd minded it, but… pregnancy and children weren't things that she'd meant to happen so soon. Not for another five, if not ten, years at least.

If her mother were here, she'd be nagging at Cho constantly about being irresponsible and too young and too stupid and ill-prepared. Which, she supposed, were all true.

"If you won't talk to him, then I'll talk to Lantica, and she'll talk to him," Bao said then. "Which might be easier for all, I suppose, since you can't seem to do it."

"No, no. I'll… I'll talk to him," Cho said and sighed. "I don't need you to do my work for me. I'll ask him."

"You don't need me to do your work for you _yet_ ," Bao snorted amusedly. "I hear towards the end you won't be of use for much. I expect I'll have to do everything for you then."

"You're so mean," Cho pouted at him. "You shouldn't be mean to me. I'm pregnant, you know. You're meant to be nice to pregnant people."

He just snorted at her.

 

* * *

 

 

Cho almost balked out for the umpteenth time, when she approached Harry Potter later that day. Potter was, as always, busy. If he wasn't working with the builders and going through yet another plan for yet another structure – another food storage, a barn, a field for the animals so that they could graze – then he was working with the fields, or with the fishing, or some other thing.

It was, Cho supposed, why he was still the leader. Because, young or not, he _was_ in charge, intentional or not.

In the end it was more the new status that her pregnancy gave her than any act of hers that made him take the time to talk to her. It could be a bit annoying, the way people treated her now, like she was made of glass and could break at any moment. She'd been taken off the hardest duty rosters and usually people even carried and fetched for her, even though she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. This time, she didn't mind.

And yet she did, because no matter how young he was and no matter how important her pregnancy supposedly made her well-being… this was still a bit scary.

"Good morning, Cho," he said, after cleaning his hands and leaving Longbottom to figure out the fertilizers they were putting together. "Was there something you needed?"

"Um, yes, if you're not busy," She said and steeled herself. She was pretty sure Bao was hanging around somewhere nearby – probably gossiping with Lantica, who couldn't be far either. If she backed away now, Bao would never let her live it down. "Privately, if you don't mind?"

He motioned her to go ahead and followed her, a strange look on his face. Cho had heard, though she didn't really put much trust in it, that he'd had a crush on her, back in Hogwarts. If he still did, he'd certainly never showed it – and never been any friendlier with her than he was with anyone.

He'd grown into his position in Atlantis too. Being in the sun and working constantly so hard looked good on him. Harry Potter had always been a bit skinny and always way too pale. Now he was about as tanned as the rest of them, if not more, and he'd put on some weight and muscle. It was a look good on him, though he still looked like a kid. Which, well, he was.

They all were, more or less.

Absently, Cho thought it would look better if he had fancier clothing. He only wore shorts, like most other boys, and it didn't look like he was their leader. He needed some symbol of authority. It would probably work better when the traders came back, too.

"So?" he asked, and she recalled her original reason for talking with him, and was instantly nervous and awkward again.

"I, uh. We're still building new houses, right?" she said awkwardly.

"M-hmm," he nodded. "We're going to set up another barn soon. There's not enough space and we want to keep the animals spread out a bit, so that if some of them get sick or something, we don't lose the whole lot."

"Makes sense," she said. She'd never even thought about it. Was that why they had so many separate fields for the same crops, to keep them apart in case of disease? She hadn't realised it was a concern.

"And we need a cold storage, for the meat once we get any," Potter added, pushing his glasses higher up on his nose and watching her levelly. "I suppose you want to talk about the house?"

"The house?" Cho asked guiltily and then sighed at his dry expression. "Bao tattled to Lantica, didn't he?"

"I was already expecting it anyway," Potter shrugged, and they stopped at the wall separating the area with the greenhouses from a field of barley. He hopped, with agile ease that they all now possessed to some degree, onto the wall and held out a hand to help her up as well.

"I didn't really want to ask," Cho admitted. "It seems… well. Selfish."

"Not really. It's not just you anymore. You need to think about the kid," he said. "And besides, it's about time we start building individual houses."

She blinked and looked at him. "It is?"

Potter shrugged. "We've food to spare and we pretty much know how we're going to live here. The communal living is easier, but not everyone is happy with it. And seeing that this is going to be a permanent settlement… Well, people deserve their own private spaces."

She considered that and then grinned. "More people have gotten caught shagging, huh?"

"Pretty much," Potter agreed dryly. "It's starting to get awkward."

They shared a chuckle and for a moment just sat there, watching the field of barley wave in the ocean breeze. Beyond the field, there was the central Atlantis, where most of the buildings were concentrated. They had several large communal houses now, as well as the bathing house which was going to be expanded soon, and the numerous food storages. Cho knew there were plans to make a building for the linen making because it was a complicated process with many steps and the various devices needed their own space. And there were even talks of building a pier and maybe even a harbour.

"We're going to draw out the lines and make a map," Potter said. "We've only so much space here, so we need to use it wisely."

"We have a hundred square miles, maybe a bit more," she pointed out. "We're not exactly cramped, are we?"

"No, but… The farming needs space. Especially with the animals," Potter shrugged. "And there's no telling how the town will develop in the future. It's best to keep any future expansions in mind. Besides… there are the dragons to consider."

Dragons, two of whom had not so subtly followed them. Lantica and Bao loitered oh-so-nonchalantly not far from them, not close enough to eavesdrop, but certainly close enough to keep an eye on them. Bao, because he was a mother hen for all that he pretended he wasn't, and Lantica because… well. She went pretty much everywhere Potter went.

"We need to consider any future clutches," Potter added thoughtfully. "The average clutch has a dozen eggs, and we've two dozen healthy adult dragons here already. It's… well. It's important to keep it in mind."

"I suppose," Cho said, absurdly happy that she didn't have to consider that. Future dragon broods, good Merlin. It was hard enough to keep the dragons they had fed and happy. The thought of adding more was a bit terrifying. "If space is so important, though, perhaps I shouldn't –"

"No, you should," Potter said and looked at her. "Personal housing is inevitable. But it's going to take a few more months, so you need to wait a bit. There's a chance that, to maximise the use of available space, we need to resort to apartment buildings, rather than individual houses. Figuring out the kinks of the architecture is going to take some time."

"Apartment buildings?" Cho asked, startled. "Really? Can we actually build them? Or are we going to start using the wood now?"

Potter shrugged. "No. The stone is more durable, and the wood is going to other purposes. It's going to be tricky, mind you, and chances are we can't make them more than two, three floors tall. But if we can do as much, then it’ll already be saving a lot of space."

Cho considered it, looking at the central Atlantis and trying to imagine it. Their tallest building was the newest storehouse. It wasn't much taller than the rest, standing only about a man's height above the rest. Imagining buildings – limestone buildings – taller than that, on their island, was a bit bewildering.

Potter patted her shoulder awkwardly. "If the plans don't pan out, we'll make you a separate house, though," he said. "So never mind what happens, you're still going to get your own home."

She shifted where she sat awkwardly and sighed. "I hate getting special treatment," she muttered. "But thanks. I really appreciate it."

Potter grinned awkwardly and jumped down from the flood barrier. "Your kid is going to be the first person born on Atlantis, you know," he said. "We're all invested in their happiness and success."

"I suppose," she muttered and then looked at him, before he could head off. "Um, another thing. When the kid is born – and if everything goes well and nothing goes wrong – I want some sort of naming… thing. I know we probably can't do it like how it's done back in the old world. But I want… something. Something, I don't know. Official and ceremonious."

Potter considered it and nodded. "I'm sure we can figure something out," he said. "Having a bit of a party certainly wouldn't hurt things around here. I'll talk it over with the others, see what we can arrange. Or, do you want to figure it out yourself?"

Cho considered it and then shook her head. If she planned the naming ceremony herself, it would make it somehow… less real. It would be like play-acting. "I guess I want there to be an official Atlantean ceremony," she said embarrassedly and grimaced. "Something every child would go through. Is that… a bit silly?"

"Not at all," Potter assured, looking around and shrugging. "We're our own nation, you know," he said. "It wouldn't hurt to have our own customs. We'll figure something out, Cho, something nice and official," he promised and then looked at her, and maybe there was some warmth in his eyes. "Was there anything else you wanted?"

"No, that's… that's about it, really," she admitted, and eased herself off the flood barrier. "Thanks for talking with me."

"Any time," he said. "Now excuse me, I have half a dozen things I need to be doing. I'll see that someone talks with you about the ceremony, once we have something down, okay?"

She nodded and he left, walking to Lantica as Bao skipped towards Cho. As Potter and Lantica headed off, Bao nudged at Cho comfortingly.

"So?" he asked. "That couldn't have been so bad, right?

She sighed. "You tattletale," she muttered and leaned against him gratefully.

 

* * *

 

 

It wasn't until a couple months later that the housing and the ceremony were brought up again. In that time, Cho's belly grew and her relationship with Cedric got tenser and more difficult. Which she'd sort of expected. After all, no matter how nice Cedric was, he was still a guy.

"I just… I'm not ready to be a dad," he told her and then they'd not talked for weeks.

Well, it wasn't like she was ready to be a mom. She just didn't have much of a choice, at this point. It was easy for him. The baby wasn't in his belly, after all. He could just walk away from it whenever he liked. Not that _anyone_ approved, of course. Because really, no one did.

"He'll come around or he won't," Marietta said with a shrug. "Either way, he's a bit of an idiot."

Cho was too tired to really be angry about it. Her belly was heavy and her feet were swollen and everything was so damn awkward. She still got sick – when people said that the morning sickness would pass, they _lied_ – and yet she still didn't. The vague nausea stayed and lingered and kept on bothering her. And she was getting fat. Of course she was getting fat. But she was getting _fat_ too – under her arms and around her thighs and everywhere else.

She really wished someone would comment on her chin just so that she could punch them. It would've done wonders to her mood.

It was Fleur Delacour who brought up the ceremony, by which point Cho had almost forgotten ever bringing it up in the first place.

"We thought we should have it in the evening, after the baby is a week or two old," she said, sketching out the ceremony in the sand of the shore. Her accent had improved much over the months, English being the most used language on Atlantis. "At the shoreline, because the dragons want a part, you see, and that means fire. The shore is the only place where we can do it safely."

The ceremony wouldn't really have much in common with anything people did on the old world, or with anything Cho knew. They were, more or less, an ocean society now, so Fleur thought they could do the whole thing ankle deep in water. There'd be words, the actual form of which still needed to be worked out properly. Mostly the whole thing would be about dragons putting on a show of fire, and there'd be fireworks, and then there'd be dancing and eating and partying.

"Harry will do the actual naming, I suppose?" she asked. "Or Lantica, if you want? She certainly is willing, if you want a dragon to do it."

Cho considered it, a bit bewildered. "I don't really know," she said, rubbing at her neck as she eyed the ceremony plans: the arrangement of the dragons, the people, where everyone would stand, where the sunflowers would go. Apparently, she was to have a sunflower crown in the ceremony, which, she mused, wouldn't be half bad. "It would be pretty fancy to have a dragon do it, wouldn't it?"

"It would definitely make the dragons happy," Fleur snorted, glancing towards where her dragon lay lounging about in the sand. Like all Horntails, her Ambroise was somewhat indolent and more interested in lazing around and sunbathing than anything else. It was the heat, Charlie Weasley had told them. It affected the Horntails the most, since they were so big.

Bao had taken to Ambroise's example and was lounging about too, his translucent green wings spread wide across the sand as he lay there, belly up. Cho stared at him for a moment and thought about the ceremony and it struck her for a moment…

That she would've very much liked her mother to hold her baby, in their naming ceremony. Wanted her to be there, to nag about the proper customs and how everything was being done all wrong, and how Cho wasn't even taking the proper precautions, warding off malevolent spirits.

"I guess, if Lantica is willing," Cho sighed.

Fleur looked at her for a moment and then stood up from where she'd been crouched, sketching the plans. As she stood there, thin and perfectly tanned and beautiful, her long blonde hair whipping in the wind, her sundress one of the new linen dresses, Cho felt even more awkward and fat. "Is there something wrong?" the French witch asked. "Do you want something added to the ceremony?"

"No, no, it's good, it's… it's fine," Cho said, and lowered her hand. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing, if it makes you sigh so," the elder girl said, touching her face and turning Cho to face her. "Are you alright?"

Cho hesitated and almost told her, but in the end she just nodded. If she said something about her mother now, she'd probably end up bursting into tears and that wouldn't help anything, really.

"Everything will go well," Fleur promised. "Zenona's been monitoring you, correct? She's told me everything seems alright. And she's been at a birth before, so she knows what to do."

One birth, Cho almost objected, just the one and Zenona had only been observing. She didn't say anything, though, just shook her head. Starting to second-guess the skills of their only even semi-competent healer would just make her sick with worry. "I'm fine. It's just… It's just a lot, sometimes," she admitted. "I didn't plan this and I don't… sometimes I don't know what to do."

Fleur made a sympathetic noise and hugged her, and it was about as awkward as it was comforting. "I know," she said. "We're all still figuring things out; and you more than the rest of us. But it's alright. It's alright not to know things. We're all learning. And we're all going to help you, you know."

Cho nodded against her shoulder and just breathed the scent of sunflowers and linen. After a moment, Fleur released her and looked her in the eye.

"And," she said very seriously. "If you need someone to duel that stupid boy of yours into seeing some sense, I'd be happy to help. Cedric is being an idiot and it would be a pleasure to knock him around the square a bit."

Cho let out a small laugh at that. "I think I'd like to see that. But no, it's okay," she said. "He's… entitled to his choices."

"Entitled? He really isn't," Fleur said, watching her closely. "It takes two to make a baby, you know. We're not back at home, either, where these things are much easier. We're here and this place is small and big and harsh. And we only have ourselves here. So, I think some responsibility is owed. Don't you?"

Cho bit her lip at that.

Fleur watched her for a moment and then squeezed her shoulder tightly. "It'll be okay," she promised. "Now, we've some new flowers on the island. So if you'd rather have chamomiles in the ceremony rather than sunflowers, that's an option too…"

 

* * *

 

 

It was raining. It was raining a _lot_. Hurricane season had started and the water was coming down as if someone was holding a colossal bucket over the island and just pouring down on it. Except, thanks to the wind that was howling through Atlantis and every house, it was going mostly sideways.

Cho was mostly confined inside. Zenona and pretty much everyone else had strictly told her not to go anywhere near the rain, telling her that, seeing as she was pregnant and all, no one could afford her becoming ill. It was probably true enough. It was terrible enough to have a pregnant woman around. A sick pregnant woman would've driven everyone mad.

"Are you alright?" Bao asked where he lay hunkered down, his head just inside and thus out of the rain, not so surreptitiously trying to inch the rest of the way in. The Greens were small enough that he might've been able to manage it, squeezing past the arched door way and into the common house. A few of them even did, during the rains. Potter and Lantica had forbidden them after one of the horntails had decided that he too should be allowed inside and then almost knocked the houses over. As it were, though, Bao had privileges that other dragons didn't, seeing that he was her partner.

 And he certainly didn't hesitate taking advantage.

"I'm fine, just bored," Cho sighed, staring outside where the rain was pouring down and running all across the square in rivulets that were more like streams really. They were going to rework the streets and the square after this, she bet. Though there was a bit of a sewer system running through the island, it wasn't quite efficient enough yet. The water was pooling ankle deep in places.

"Better bored than working the fields, I'd say," Bao said, shifting carefully and thus coming another inch or so inside.

"At least I would be doing something working the fields. I don't like just sitting around doing nothing when everyone else is working," Cho muttered, running a hand over and over her stomach. "And speaking of which, you should be out there helping, I think."

"But I'm with you. And you shouldn't be left alone. What if something happens and you go into labour and then no one is there? No one would ever let me live it down," Bao said with a huff.

"I'm not yet in my sixth month, you know. I'm not going to go into labour for months," Cho said dryly.

"Well you never know. Besides, Lantica told me I should stay with you," Bao said with righteous justification. "And I can't very well disobey her, can I?"

Cho snorted, not very impressed and then looked up as she heard the splat of steps, running across the water soaked streets. A moment later, a witch ducked past Bao, muttering, "Shift over you great lump," and then greeting her with a, "How's it going, Cho?"

"It's really not," Cho said, shifting where she sat on a pile of seat pillows thrown haphazardly near the doorway. "How are the fields?"

"Not flooding yet," Hermione sighed, pushing her sopping wet hair away from her face. "And it looks like we managed to rework the irrigation tracks in time, so hopefully they won't be flooding at all. Now it's just waiting and watching and making sure the flood barriers hold."

"Has the water risen?" Cho asked, frowning.

"It's a high tide and the water's already reached the first layer of barriers," the younger witch nodded. "And it looks like the wind is only picking up so we might get some high waves. If this is the start of a hurricane, we might be in a bit of trouble. We'll see."

Cho hummed in agreement. All spring and summer they spent putting up those flood barriers, and, it seemed, not a bit too soon. "Do you think they're high enough?" she asked.

 Hermione made a noncommittal hum. "We'll see," she said, walking to her bunk to pick up some clean clothing. "I'm heading to the bathhouse," she said, glancing up. "To get the water going and the heat up before the others come. Want to join me?"

Cho hesitated and then nodded. She didn't, usually. Not when there were a lot of people in the bathhouse. The very careful not-staring was a bit grating. But it was somewhat chilly and it looked like Hermione could use the help. She was covered in mud and looked exhausted. "Sure. Should we take more linens there?"

"Might as well," Hermione nodded and they both picked up a stack of the simple, grey-white linens that were almost, but not quite, as good as towels.

With Bao walking beside them, holding one wing to shield them from the rain, they headed across the square and to the bathhouse, which, as time had gone by, had been expanded four separate times. What had been a bare tub fit only for one or two people was now a pool fit for fifty, and it was only one of two. The boys and girls had their own pools, dressing rooms, and lounge areas.

It was, Cho had to admit, one of her favourite things about living on Atlantis. They didn't quite have running water, and individual showers and baths were a bit too tricky to be introduced into all the houses just yet. So they'd eventually gone all out on the bathhouse, and the result was definitely worth it.

At the pillars that stood at each side of the bathhouse entrance, Bao whined softly. "It's so unfair. You get to go have a nice warm bath while I have to stay outside," he muttered.

"If you want to become the human girl with a baby in her belly, be my guest," Cho said and patted his neck.

"You'll have your own pools, once we figure out how to get the heating pipes right," Hermione pointed out, ducking under the cover of the bathhouse doorway, pushing the wooden doors open as she did. "It shouldn't take more than a month or so, you know."

"A month spent cold and miserable in the hurricane season. Hooray," Bao sighed, settling down as close as he could to the building, lifting his wings up to shield himself from the rain. "Any word on the pavilion?" he asked hopefully.

"It's going to have to wait a bit, I'm afraid," Hermione said sympathetically. "We can't send miners out before the ocean settles, you know. Bubble head charms don't help much when the currents can throw you against the cliffs at any moment. Once it's safe to mine, though…"

Cho smiled faintly at Bao's sad sigh and petted his side. "You don't normally care about the whole pavilion thing," she pointed out.

"Well normally it's not raining this much," he muttered and ducked his head under his wing.

Shaking her head, Cho followed Hermione indoors. "I miss the mining," she commented. "And the fishing, and I didn't really like doing it that much."

"Well there will definitely still be work to do, once you're ready to do it again," Hermione said, giving her a perceptive look. "Mind you, it might be a while. No one much likes the idea of… well. Putting you to work, as it were. Not with a baby. So you're probably going to have to endure a maternity leave on top of everything else."

Cho sighed. "Maternity leave when I'm not even working. Wonderful."

Hermione chuckled, getting out of her mud strained sundress and waving her wand over it, to spell it clean. Cho set her linens down on one of the stone benches that circled the walls of the dressing room and then did the same. Despite Bao's covering them, she'd still gotten her dress splattered with water.

"I'm sure we'll figure out something for you to do. We just don't have that many, well… easy jobs right now," Hermione said as they headed to the bathing hall itself, and the pool. It was the unspoken rule of the bathing house to clean the pool after using it, but it still never hurt to throw a few cleaning charms at it before heating the water. After all, it didn't really get changed.

After they did just that, Cho eased herself to sit on the tiles beside the water, feeling them heat beneath her as they heated with the water. Once the water was warm enough, about body temperature and not the steaming hot like most people preferred it, she dipped in for her own bath, ducking her head under the water and rubbing her fingers through her hair, to get it all wet.

When she resurfaced, Hermione was in the water as well, holding a wash cloth. "Scrub your back?" she offered.

Cho nodded gratefully, as she had some difficulties twisting around and though she could reach behind herself, it was always nicer to have someone scrub you. Hermione did it with the same briskness they'd all come to adopt, as the communal bathing had become not just commonplace, but an adjusted habit.

"I don't want to be… rude or anything. But how difficult is it, really?" Hermione asked with the sort of morbid curiosity that a lot of the other girls expressed, whenever they really dared to ask.

"On the whole it's not really that bad. It's just… little things compiling on top of one another," Cho sighed. "There's the nausea and I can't eat that much all at once, but I'm hungry all the time. And then I feel sick, most of the time. And the thing they say about smells is pretty much spot on. I haven't really had that many cravings, but sometimes I could really, really go for some ice-cream. And chocolate." She sighed sadly. Didn't seem like they'd have ice-cream in a long while, if ever. "And I need to pee all the time. And my back hurts, and my neck, and my chest is sort of sore all the time, and my hips. Not my feet so much anymore. I suppose I've gotten adjusted to the weight."

Hermione listened to the tirade, scrubbing Cho's back as she did, making sympathetic noises every now and again. "Is it... kicking yet?" she asked carefully. "I remember reading somewhere that it can start as early as the fourth month. And you're already in the sixth, right? So any kicking yet?"

Cho paused at that, running a hand over the stretched skin of her belly. "No, not yet," she murmured, frowning. "I think I might've felt it move, once. It was in the middle of the night, though, and I just got up to go to the toilet so that might've been it."

Hermione nodded. "Are you worried?" she asked.

"All the bloody time," the elder witch sighed and shook her head. "But Zenona says it's looking good and… and witches have higher chances of surviving childbirth than muggles. So there's that."

Hermione was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. "You know, maybe you should write down notes," she said. "For the future. I mean… well. It could be useful. We haven't yet gotten paper production up and running properly, but we can make a sort of stiff linen which might do for writing."

Cho paused at that. "Do we have ink?" she asked.

Hermione shrugged. "Soot and glue," she said. "It's easy enough to make."

"And… where do we get the _glue_?" Cho asked, frowning.

"Heating fish skin and bones in water. Or animal hide and hoofs and whatnot, but we don't exactly have plenty of those to go around. Fish we do," the younger witch answered and paused. "Granted, that might not be… well. It can be messy and smelly and might not agree with you."

"Hmm," Cho said. "It's something to consider."

 

* * *

 

 

The hurricane season lasted for weeks, with small breaks here and there. The dragons complained about it a lot – Bao, Cho thought, being among the loudest. After all, with the constant rain and winds, they couldn't play ball. "And just when we'd finally managed to pitch the goal rings too," Bao murmured

"You didn't even play that much," Cho commented, considering the fish bones she had arrayed all across the work table. She was standing just outside the cooking house, her work table set just between the pillars that ran along the front of the house. It was the closest she could get to the actual cookery without nearly throwing up – the fish smell did not agree with her. Here, outside, she could manage it though.

"Well, I liked watching as much as anyone else," he said and peered at the table. "Are you going to do something or just stare at them?"

"Just stare at them. I like how they look. Might make a necklace," she snorted and then took a particularly large fish bone – from a tuna or a shark. They had a lot more sharks around the island these days, thanks to the fact that the fish guts were generally thrown into the ocean, which invited smaller fish to eat the, and which in turn invited predators to eat _them_.

Somewhat dubiously, she dropped the bone into the small stone cauldron she had transfigured for the task, before twiddling with the oil lamp beneath it. It was not quite a gas flame like they used back in Hogwarts in potions classes, but it was about as good as they were going to get, on Atlantis.

"Do you think this will really work?" Bao asked somewhat dubiously.

"I have no idea," Cho admitted and grinned. Potions class hadn't been her favourite exactly – it hadn't been anyone's favourite, really – but she liked the experimenting, whenever she got to try it. Making glue wasn't something she'd ever done before so… "Could be a disaster in the making," she said.

"I'll get a bucket of water ready, shall I?" Bao asked with a snort and then glanced up as some noise reached them from the shoreline. "What's that, then?" he murmured, sitting up on his haunches and trying to crane his head. But though he was a large creature, he still wasn't quite large enough to see over the buildings or the flood barriers.

"Could be another ship?" Cho asked. They'd had a handful of visitors – mostly whalers, though less so with the start of the winter and the rains. "Go have a look."

Bao hesitated and then spread out his wings. "I'll be right back," he promised and took to wing, splattering water everywhere as he did. Cho wiped some from her face and checked her flame, but it didn't seem like the lamp had been hit, so she concentrated on the fish bones she was slowly adding to the tiny cauldron.

"I think this will be trickier than just boiling these things," she muttered after a moment, frowning. The bones weren't doing much, never mind melting. Maybe a hotter flame was needed?

She was just considering what she could do to the oil lamp, when Bao landed back on the streets. "Something washed up," he said excitedly, his yellow green eyes wide. "Something _big_. And weird. It might be some sort of… snake. Or a dragon. Or both!"

Cho glanced up. "Snake and dragon both? Like a sea serpent?"

"Yes, that's it, a sea serpent," he nodded and nudged at her shoulder. "Come look?"

She hesitated and glanced at the cauldron. "Well, I suppose I wasn't really doing much yet," she muttered and doused the flame. After making sure nothing would catch fire in her absence, she turned to follow Bao's excited, half gliding pace towards the shoreline.

There, stretched on the part of the beach they had yet to cover with sand, a long creature was bobbing half in and half out of the waves. With Bao nudging and pulling at her, Cho approached the group surrounding the creature slowly, and then winced. Whatever it was, it had horrible marks across its side. Something had gouged it good.

"Is it dead?" she asked faintly, just as someone – one of those closest to it, called, "It's still alive!" and everyone quickly backed away from it.

As they stepped aside, Cho leaned in and saw the full length of the creature. It was maybe twenty feet long, longer than Bao was, almost the length of the Fireballs. Despite the gouges in its side, it was still breathing – short, laboured breaths that bubbled out of the beast's nostrils in red. It was very dragon-like, though it lacked wings and horns, having fins instead – and webbed feet, rather than talons.

It was also, quite obviously, dying.

"Do you think it can speak?" someone murmured. "Like our dragons?"

"Do you want to try talking to it?"

Cho swallowed and turned to look away from the dying sea serpent. As she did, she saw a dragon gliding down towards them from the settlement, the proud set of her head easily recognizable. Lantica, the only dragon on the entire island who flew with her head held up rather than level, landed not far from them, tucking her wings in as Harry Potter slid down from her back without pause, racing towards them even as many other dragons came to land.

Cho didn't even have time to marvel the fact that Potter had ridden on Lantica's back, when Potter was already there, approaching the sea serpent.

 _Hissing_ as he did so.

For a moment she thought he'd gone mad – or that she had. Then it dawned on her. Of course. _Parseltongue_. There had been that thing, a couple of years back, about Harry Potter being a parselmouth, hadn't there? She'd completely forgotten about it.

It was hard to tell what Potter was saying – or what effect it was having. The sea serpent's wicked, weary eye turned to him and followed his approach and it let out a hiss of its own. But whether it was understandable to Potter was hard to say. Potter kept on hissing for a moment longer, cautiously advancing – and then quickly backing away when the sea serpent snarled and tried to snap its jaws at him.

The move turned out to be too much for the creature. It let out a gurgle, and its head landed heavily on the wet sand. It drew a gurgling, hissing breath once, twice – and then grew still.

There was a moment of silence with only the wind and the lapping of waves making any sound, and Cho thought she heard a dragon whine – it might've even been Bao. Potter stood there for a moment, an oddly desolate figure next to the blood-stained, dead sea serpent, before sighing, his shoulders slumping.

"Well?" someone asked nervously.

Potter shook his head. "I don't think it understood me. Might be it was too far gone, or… parseltongue isn't as universal here as it was back there," he said, and glanced at the rest of them. "When did it wash up? Did anyone see it happen?"

No one had – they'd discovered it when they'd gone on the rounds, checking that the flood barriers were holding. It was hard to say how long the sea serpent had been on the shore. Probably for a while. There was a lot of blood.

"Looks like a shark got to it," someone commented, pointing at the gouges in the serpent's side.

"What will we do with it?" Lantica asked, nosing at the sea serpent's head. "Do we… bury it?"

"I hate to say this, but… that might be a bit of a waste," Potter said, crouching by the dead creature. "We haven't had many opportunities to study the differences between our old world and this world. Especially when it comes to dragons and such. We shouldn't let this chance go to waste. Could someone call for Charlie? He'll know the best way to go about… well. Dissecting it."

Lantica let out a displeased rumble and Bao winced against Cho's side. Patting his neck, Cho decided she'd seen enough. Any more, and she'd throw up. "Come on," she said to Bao. "Let's… try again with that glue."

 

* * *

 

 

It took a few days to get the ink into a form where it actually worked. The first batch ended up weirdly chunky; the next one was first too runny and then too thick; the third batch solidified into a slab and the fourth… sort of worked. While some other residents of Atlantis took the glue recipe – which was the first thing Cho wrote with the ink – Cho herself went over methods of writing. Ink pens and linen scrolls didn't work too well together.

"Maybe a brush," she murmured, considering the scroll she'd gotten from those people who worked on making linen. "Though I can't picture most of the others using a brush to write."

"They will, if they can't use anything else," Bao answered. "Write about me. Something nice."

"Alright. Once upon a time there was a lazy, good for nothing, gluttonous lizard…"

The second thing she made was a calendar. It was a couple more days of work to try and figure it out. It was a bit hard, since she didn't know what specific weekday it was, and even the actual date was a bit shaky. No one had much kept track of the days, as they tended to blend together on Atlantis and it wasn't as if they had schedules, so it hadn't much mattered. In the end, the calendar she made had no weekdays, only months, with each day having a small numbered box on the scroll.

She put the scroll up on a wall in the communal house where she lived. And as time went on, people added marks to it. Special holidays, birthdays, and what they thought was approximately the anniversary of the day they'd arrived on Atlantis. Later, the other houses wanted similar calendars to mark the days on and then, a little later, Potter approached her about making a stone calendar for the central square.

"It would make it easier to keep track," he explained. "And… we should probably have annual holidays. Yule and such."

"I'm not much of a stone worker," Cho admitted, considering. "I can make the bricks, same as everyone else, but anything more specific…"

He considered her for a moment. "Maybe you should talk with Cedric," he offered. "He's pretty good at it. Usually."

She grimaced. "You're not very subtle."

"No, I'm not," he agreed with a laugh. "But you really should talk with him. Or punch him, whichever you want. It would probably do both of you some good. But I'm serious about the stone calendar."

Cho sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "Why do _I_ have to talk to him when _he_ 's the one who's being a prat?"

"Well, you don't _have to_ ," Potter said with a shrug. "But if you're not going to do it, then no one's going to do it. He's too much of a coward to make the first move."

"He made the _last_ move. I'd hoped that'd be enough," Cho muttered and then shook her head. "I'll think about it," she promised, wanting to do no such thing, and knowing she'd probably stay awake the entire night, thinking about it anyway.

She went looking for Cedric the next day, and it went about as well as she thought it would.

 

* * *

 

 

They started almost civilly. Cedric even asked how Cho was doing, how she was feeling. Cho answered just as civilly back. She was fine, a bit sore, and biting back all the nasty bits of pregnancy she wished she could just shout at him. Then he said he knew why she was there, and she asked did he indeed. And he said he was sympathetic to her situation and she asked was he _indeed_. Then he'd said that he understood.

And then they spiralled down into a shouting match. Cho, unable to help herself, let loose all the bitter betrayal she'd felt about him leaving her to deal with it alone. Cedric, guilty and defensive, said that he'd done no such thing. Of course he'd help her if she asked. She didn't believe him. He certainly hadn't done anything to help so far. He said that she hadn't exactly asked, that she'd been avoiding him for months. She accused him of doing the same, _and_ he had walked off on her. He said it was to think, just to think, to gather his thoughts.

It had slowly gotten worse and louder until Cho accused him of being a childish good for nothing coward and he told her it had been her job to make sure she didn't get pregnant in the first place, so wasn't it _her_ fault, the whole thing. And then she probably would've beaten him with her bare fists if Isaac and Bao hadn't been hovering over them anxiously.

They'd all learned early on that dragon companions should not fight. It made the dragons damn uneasy.

So, having been denied that pleasure, Cho whipped out her wand, aimed it at Cedric and spat out the first hex that came to mind. And then swiftly walked away before Isaac could figure out what she'd done.

Later, she wished she could've been… even a little surprised by the outcome. The talk – the fight – with Cedric, as exhausting as it had been, wasn't in the least unexpected, though. And after, she didn't feel much at all. Just tired and alone and worn out.

"I think we're much better without them," Bao said, curling around her as they hunkered down in the corner of the flood barriers just a little off the experimental field. "Isaac is alright, but Cedric is a complete prat."

"He's not, not really," Cho sighed. "He's usually nice. He _was_ nice. I liked him. I still like him. But… he wasn't expecting a baby. I wasn't either, but…"

It was hard to even try to justify it, but she had to. If she didn't, she'd end up hating him and though right then she felt very much like he'd deserve every bit of her hate… her mother had taught her better than that. Hating people was exhausting and she had more important things to do, more pressing matters to set her mind to.

"We're living on a small island. We shouldn't fight," Cho said, wiping her hand over her face and no, she wasn't crying, _at all_. "Who knows, maybe now that we've had a blowout, we might settle it all civilly."

"Tch," Bao snorted, disbelieving.

Nothing had really changed and they hadn't made any progress, really. And that probably would've been the way of it, if it hadn't been for Isaac. Isaac was, after all, a Short Snout. And if Short Snouts were anything, they were unwilling to settle for the status quo.

Cho was at the school, sitting on the stone steps just outside the entrance, and Bao was playing with the younger inhabitants of the island just below her, when Isaac descended on them, with a furiously struggling Cedric gently grasped in his talons. The blue-silver dragon dropped his clearly objecting companion almost directly in Cho's lap.

"Settle this," he ordered both of them and then, without so much as a hello to Bao, took off again.

"Uh," Cho said, looking at Cedric, and then snorted. He had boils all over his face, especially around his nose. So _that_ was the hex she'd used. "Hi, Cedric," she said with badly smothered laughter.

"Hi, Cho," he answered, first looking angry, then annoyed, and then he sighed. "You've been teaching?" he asked, motioning at the school house.

"I took over Marietta's turn this week," Cho shrugged, glancing back. The school wasn't quite as impressive as Hogwarts, but it wasn't even one of the more impressive buildings in Atlantis. It’s definitely nothing like the first multi-storey one they'd just started putting up. But then, they didn't exactly have hundreds of students. "She has a secret project that requires time and secrecy. Especially from me. I think she's making something for the naming ceremony."

"Uhhuh," he answered and for a moment, eyed the pillars in the front of the school house. Then, shifting uneasily, he said, "I guess we should have a chat in private."

"I think we're fine where we are," Cho said, not quite stiffly. Maybe, with the kids about, they wouldn't end up shouting at each other. "Pull up a stair, Cedric," she said, patting the step beside her.

Cedric twisted his hands uneasily a bit, and Cho was for a moment struck by how good he looked. His hair was going a bit golden in the near constant sunlight and he was tanned from top to toe. And the fact that he did hard labour with the building didn't look at all bad on him. And, like most guys, he didn't wear a shirt.

Cho didn't think she could ever be his girlfriend again, and for a moment she couldn't help but regret things a bit.

"Listen," Cedric said finally, sitting down. "I really, really don't want to… I know I'm being an asshole and I'm sorry about it, but I really, I'm not ready for a kid."

"Yeah, you've made that clear," Cho said, giving him a level look, the hint of regret all but evaporating. "You can stop panicking about it, you know. At this point I really don't expect you to settle down to play house with me. And I don't really even want you to be a dad for the kid."

 He was quiet for a moment. "You don't?" he then asked uneasily.

She sighed, leaning back and looking up and to the sky. It was a sunny, bright day, no clouds in sight. "No," she said finally. He obviously wasn't ready and she knew how badly it could go, when someone was forced into a relationship. "No I don't. Hell, if you want me to keep the fact that you're the dad from the kid, I can probably do that too. But a little help would be appreciated."

He swallowed and stared at his hands for a moment. "They say I should marry you," he said awkwardly.

"They can go to hell. I'm not marrying you. You're a prat," Cho answered, and felt a private thrill when he chuckled at it.

"So, uh," Cedric said after a moment. "Help then. What sort of help?"

"I don't know. General help. A bit of support. It'd be nice to know that if something happened, I could trust you to take care of it if you could. A blanket promise that if I die you'd make sure someone took care of the kid wouldn't hurt, either," Cho said.

"Nothing's going to happen to you," he objected.

She snorted. "We don't know that. The birth might go okay and then a house might fall on me or something."

He made an unhappy face but nodded. "Alright," he said awkwardly, rubbing a hand over his neck. Then, possibly for the first time since the start, he looked at her – really looked at her, belly and all. "Have you decided on a name?"

"No. And you have no say," Cho said.

"Yeah, I know. I was just wondering," he said and looked away. There was a moment of semi-uncomfortable silence, but at least it wasn't the violence-filled tension from their previous encounters. "Is everything going okay? With everything?"

"Everything's fine," she said. "I mean, I need to take a piss every damn hour and I've got cellulite in places that I don't think are meant to get cellulite and I think I have haemorrhoids or something because going to the bathroom is a _pain_ , and my back hurts all the time. Also my tits are sore and they don't fit my bra anymore, hence," she motioned at her chest which, beneath her new and already too small dress, was utterly bra-less, ignoring his look of outrage all the while. "And I leak sometimes," she added mercilessly. "Won't have any problems breast-feeding at least, which is good. It isn't like you can buy baby formula around here. Would like it better if I stopped wetting the bed with breast milk."

Cedric let out a strangled, horrified noise. "That's… nice," he said and then back-pedalled, going white and red both at once. "I mean, it's not nice. It's horrible. I mean… shit. "

Cho threw back her head, and laughed.

 

* * *

 

Cho's last months of pregnancy were in turns horrible and fantastic, and she was caught between looking forward to being done with the whole thing, and being terrified of the actual birth which was coming closer, day by day.

The apartment building was finished just a week before she went into labour. It was, without any doubt, the grandest building they had; three stories, fifteen apartments and its own communal bath, with a pool somewhat smaller than the bathhouse pools but no less luxurious. While the upper floors didn't have toilets, all the lower floor apartments did, including Cho's own flat, which was easily the biggest of them all, with a sweeping living room-kitchen combination, three bedrooms, and the toilet.

The building also had an enormous back porch – or a portico. That was apparently what it was called, those porch-like spaces they had at the entrances of their houses, though none of the other houses had anything like what the apartment building had. It was absolutely enormous and gorgeous – almost as large as the entire rest of the building, with a vaulted stone ceiling and pillars which, Cho thought, were the most sparsely spaced pillars they had yet had, in a building.

Cho's apartment had doors leading to the portico, as well as enormous windows which could be opened up and the purpose for it all was very obvious when Bao settled down beneath the cover of the portico with a happy hum, resting his head on her low and wide windowsill and looking in on her house with perfect satisfaction.

"This is very nice," he commented.

"It is, isn't it?" Cho asked, happy herself. It was all polished limestone and it was beautifully cool inside. The stone stove in her kitchen was less kitchenware and more work of art, and she had running water. How that had been accomplished she wasn't sure. She only knew that there was a water reservoir on the top of the building. However it was, she appreciated the hell out of it.

"Well then," Marietta said at the sight of the place. "I guess I'm taking the smaller bedroom?"

"You are?" Cho asked, surprised.

"You think I'm going to leave you alone, with a kid on the way?" she asked, her eyebrows arching. "Besides, I haven't been making you linens nonstop for this long not to enjoy them myself."

Marietta, who worked mostly at flax processing and linen making, had made them everything from sheets and towels to new clothing – and pillows. So many pillows, enough of them that they forewent beds altogether and instead piled the pillows up in their respective bedrooms and slept on them. Marietta had also made a whole slew of baby clothes and, something Cho could've kissed her for, cloth nappies that could be washed and buttoned up.

"You are amazing," Cho said, hugging her. "Thank you so much."

"Mm-hmm," she answered. "You can pay me back when it's my turn."

"Your turn? You're not…?" Cho leaned back a little.

"Well, not yet. But it's gonna happen eventually," she shrugged and grinned. "So I'm preparing and making alliances and notes for future reference. And collecting debts that I can cash in on later."

 

* * *

 

 

The birth itself was… almost what all the older women in her life had described it to be. Just about a hundred times worse. It lasted for almost twenty hours and most of that she spent on her feet, pacing and in pain, while Zenona counted her contractions and they waited for the right moment.

And then Zenona first had her lie down and when that didn't work quite as well as she had hoped, they tried crouching and that didn't work quite as well either. "Well," the Polish witch said dubiously while Cho just barely kept herself from trying to kill her. The contractions were coming faster now, and it hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before. "I suppose a water birth…"

"I'm going to kill you," Cho grunted through clenched teeth. "Do something!"

Zenona and Marietta pretty much carried her to the bathroom of the apartment building, where the pool was quickly cleaned and sterilised. It was… easier, once she was in the water. Disgusting and messy and horrible and painful, but easier.

She gave birth there, in the water, her screams bouncing off the polished tiles and almost passing out when it was finally over. While Marietta not so surreptitiously cleaned the pool over and over again, Zenona lifted the baby out of the water and then it was there, in front of Cho, screaming its little lungs out.

"A boy," Zenona said, running her wand over the baby while Cho stared at him in blank astonishment. The elder witch considered her readings for a moment and then nodded, cutting the umbilical chord with a spell and tying it with another before casting a healing charm on it.

Then she deposited the baby in Cho's arms.

The water was warm around her and the baby was tiny, fragile, wrinkly, and red with a tuft of dark hair on his head. "A boy," she murmured, supporting the baby's head with a palm and staring, almost serene in her bewilderment, at this little life she'd created. A boy. She'd given birth to a boy. She had a son.

Cedric wasn't there and wouldn't be there, probably wouldn't even see the kid until a couple of days later, and she wasn't even angry about that anymore.

She had a _son_.

Neither Zenona nor Marietta said a thing when Cho began to sob softly against the baby's hair.

 

* * *

It was getting dark. The sun was just setting on the horizon. The waves were lapping around Cho's ankles as she stood there, the hem of her white linen dress getting wet with the water. It was warm and quiet, even though the entire population of Atlantis was present and watching her.

At some silent signal, Harry Potter stepped forward. He too was in the water, a step or so deeper than she was. He wore a white, almost ceremonious robe and he didn't look like a fifteen year old boy, but like the leader of Atlantis he really was. He didn't say anything, just held out his hands and carefully, Cho passed the half sleeping baby from her arms to his. Then she watched, anxious and helplessly happy, as he turned to address the crowd of Atlanteans, wizards and dragons both.

"We've been blessed," he began, his voice soft but carrying, "with a new life here, on Atlantis. If ever this island is to be our home, it is today, for this child was born here and here he makes his home. Today we gather here, at the shore of the Atlantic and the shore of Atlantis, to give this new life a name."

Lantica was in the water just behind him, standing there knee deep and hovering. As Potter turned, she spread her wings out and they shone with the dim light of the setting sun behind her.

"Today," she started, leaning her head down to look at the baby. The baby was more awake now, and looking up at her with bright blue eyes. When she dipped her head down further, he reached out to try and touch her snout. "We gift you a name. A name to shield you and to shelter you and to unite you with our lives and hearts. You, Child of Atlantis, are dear to us and for that we name you Huo."

Cho let out a breath. She'd talked it over with Lantica many times in the last two weeks. But in the end, she'd left the decision in her hands. It had seemed right, somehow, not to mention it had been a bit cool to think that a dragon would name her son. Still she'd been a bit worried. Until now.

Huo. Huo Chang, son of Cho Chang.

There was no cheering, not at first. Not before the Fireballs – Lady and Pretty Beast – took their places at each side of the ceremony. They drew breaths, gurgled ever so softly in their throats, and then they let the fire fly. Two perfectly formed fireballs flew out and over the dark ocean, their reflections racing them, up and then down until they hit the water, almost exactly at equal distance and at the same time.

It was the start of the fire ceremony. While Potter gently handed Huo to Cho, Septimus and Fabian stepped forward as well and they too let their fire fly. And then Lantica took her place in the line and Gideon joined, and all six Fireballs for a moment barraged the water with their fire, first in sets of two, then one at a time in rapid succession, and then all at exactly the same time, a broadside of fire.

There was the sound of wings above and then the whole sky was lit as ten Horntails, all of them in well rehearsed unison, breathed fire. They danced and weaved high above the crowd, slowly making their way over the water where their fire reflected on the lazy waves and there were a lot of oohing and aahing in the crowd as they watched. They were making patterns, rings and spirals, going inward and outward, like a well-designed firework, only with pure flames and no sparks. Then the smaller Greens joined, their sharp jet flames adding exquisite detail to the dance of fire.

Their pattern crowned when the Short Snouts took to the air too, and added their intense blue flames to the barrage of red and orange, and then the Fireballs were going aloft as well, sending out their projectile flames in succession, shot after shot.

Cho was so busy watching the fire above her that she completely missed the fact that some of the Durmstrang students were dancing, with fireballs lit on their wand tips, a few of them breathing out their own flames every now and then. It was a violent, heavy-stepped dance that kicked up the sand beneath their bare feet and added a steady beat to the dragon's dance.

Then it was over and everyone was cheering, shooting out sparks into the air, lighting the area with magical fireworks. Then the dragons came to land, all of them preening with justified pride. Bao had been there too, flying in fiery formation. Now he came to Cho who was still standing in the water, nuzzling his snout ever so gently against her back before he peered over her shoulder to look.

"Huo," he said, sounding enormously pleased. "That's a good name."

"Yes. Yes, I think it is," Cho smiled, leaning against his bulk as everyone cheered and the feast to celebrate the birth of the first child of Atlantis began.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's about it for the Island of Fire verse for a while - I have more planned but I'm no longer in mood for Temeraire stuff, and this is an exhausting verse to write to, so I'm taking a break and writing something else for a while. 
> 
> Thank you very much for reading :)


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